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How To Read The Bible For
Better Understanding
The Bible is its own best
teacher. The Bible however is not arranged like
an encyclopedia. You cannot go to chapter 1 and
read everything about God and go to chapter 2 to read
everything about Jesus, etc. Remember when
reading the Bible the verses and chapter breaks are
placed in the scriptures by man. It is better to
read by paragraph, these too are man-made but they do
conform better to the original language than verses.
Some ground rules need to be set up first:
- Pray first before opening God's
word. Ask for guidance and to be able to
accept what is written and to be able to apply His
will to your life.
- Never, never read the Bible trying
to proof your belief on any subject. It is
only human nature to take ideas out of
context.
- When you are reading and come
across something that does not make sense, reread
the paragraph or chapter again. If you still
do not understand, write down the problem area and
continue onward. You may discover the answers later
in your reading.
- Do not read large amounts of the
Bible in one setting. Take breaks often.
Or stay with about 4-6 chapters a day. A good
reading schedule is here.
- Start with the New Testament,
people who start with the Old Testament almost never
read the Bible all the way through. The New
Testament is what is binding on us today not the
Old. We need to follow God's will for us today
not what was intended for the Jews.
- Forget everything you have ever
heard about Jesus, God and the Bible before you
start reading the Bible. Don't take what you
want it to say with you first.
- Always use a 'literal' translation
like the KJV, ASV, YLT, NKJV, KJIII,
MLV (the best one). (Other translations not listed should
be avoided.)
- If you don't have a cheap Bible,
buy one. Write on it, highlight it, make notes, if
later you want to retire it for better, do so. NEVER
buy a 'study bible.' They are full of peoples
opinions which you don't need clouding your mind!
The MLV with 2" wide margin is here. ($6.50)
Now with those in mind, let's lay out the
way to read the Bible to let it build on itself:
- Read "Mark." (It is written in
chronological order.)
- Read "Matthew." (It goes
into better detail of some events and adds more
about Jesus.)
- Read "John." (It contains a
lot of the life of Jesus not read before, especially
his last two weeks before his crucifixion.)
- Read "Luke" then
"Acts." (Both written by Apostle Paul's
traveling companion Luke. Acts is a
continuation of Luke. It describes the early
church and contains the examples of New Testament
conversions.)
- Read "Galatians." (It deals
with the reasons why we do not follow the Old
Testament Laws in a more simplified way than does
Romans or Hebrews.)
- Then read the rest of the New
Testament starting at Romans and going to
Revelation.
Your voyage through God's Word will take
about 6 weeks. It will be the best traveling you
can ever take. You will laugh and you will cry. It
has everything that makes a very good book, and lots
more, but all true. It can teach you the most
important things for this life and the one to come.
Second Part:
Overview of Bible
Translations for Better Understanding
If you want to read the world's most accurate bible
translation and have a personal PDF for your phone or computer click
here.
MLV
in Book Form (Sunday, Nov. 22, $4.30; other days depending on Amazon's markup this week $6.50-$8)
More info on the Holy Bible: Modern Literal Version, click here.
Copyright
2014 by Butch Walker may be reproduced for
non-commercial purposes at no cost to others
unless otherwise stated. (Most unfinished works
are still under copyright before release to the
Public Domain.)
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